Objectives of the service
Roughly 50% of agricultural N ends up in waterways through leaching and runoff, requiring water companies to spend great effort and expense to remove it. Currently, they lack catchment-level line-of-sight on nitrate-load quantity and provenance (geolocation) as well as ROI quantification on the impact of mitigation activities.
The nitrate management SaaS (Software as a Service) platform (FLOW) will provide remote monitoring and analytics for water utilities, enabling them to comply with regulatory requirements and reduce the costs associated with nitrate treatment. By efficiently managing nitrate levels, utilities can avoid potential fines and mitigate the negative environmental impact of high nitrate concentrations. The FLOW SaaS platform can allow utilities to better allocate their budget to greatly reduce nitrate leaching. Agreed can also remotely monitor the impacts of investments to validate effectiveness for continual improvement.
Users and their needs
- Water companies in UK / Globally
- Needs to regulate nitrate run-off in rivers through agricultural management investment
- Our tool helps water companies identify high-risk areas to focus their investment and maximise return on investment in terms of nitrate reduction at source.
- Farmer (e.g. wheat farmer) in UK / Globally
- Needs to optimise nitrogen use efficiency to increase profit margins and reduce loss of input
- Our tool helps farmers understand the physical run-off risks associated with each field. Farmers can apply different remedies to improve soil retention or convert high-loss area to other uses.
- Lenders/Risk Management (Insurance Companies) in UK / Globally
- Needs for reliable data for climate disclosure reporting and managing risks related to soil degradation and associated flood/drought risk
Service/ system concept
With the main Nitrate Dashboard, users like water companies will be able to see the nitrate loss hotspots highlighted in their associated geographical region for the past 5 years. They are able to see the nitrogen fertiliser application based on crop type, the percentage of loss due to run-off and coordinates of the hotspots.
In the farmer investment tracker, corporate users who aim to track and measure success of agricultural practice investment could see the changes of N loss due to reduction in nitrogen fertiliser application or improvement in soil health. This allows user to measure the return on their investments.
For farmers, they see the field-level nitrogen loss map of their own farm and the associated cost of loss.
Space Added Value
The ESA's Copernicus and Sentinel satellites form the crux of our data-driven nitrate loss model, supplying essential inputs like digital elevation models, soil moisture, temperature and vegetation health - critical factors that affect how nitrogen flows through the system and currently not accounted for in nitrogen loss inventory calculations. Additionally, processed indices from these satellites facilitate crop identification and nitrogen requirement/application estimation, augmenting our platform's value by allowing top-down modelling with a minimum of ground truth data required from farmers.
Current Status
Since the kick-off of this feasibility study, Agreed has
-
Progressed a pilot contract with 1 water company with a scope extension requested - Scoping and procurement discussions in progress with 2 additional water companies - Scoping and procurement discussions in progress with 2 financial institutions - Held farmer workshops with farmers to gather requirements and feedback on product utility